UN moves to unlock stuck climate financing for Afghanistan

UN moves to unlock stuck climate financing for Afghanistan
An Afghan woman holds her child as a man salvages his belongings from flood waters outside their house in Maymana, the capital city of Faryab Province, Afghanistan, on May 19, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 20 November 2024
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UN moves to unlock stuck climate financing for Afghanistan

UN moves to unlock stuck climate financing for Afghanistan
  • UN agencies drawing up proposals for climate projects
  • Initial projects expected to be worth around $19 million

KABUL/BAKU: United Nations agencies are trying to unlock key climate financing for Afghanistan, one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change which has not received approval for any fresh such funds since the 2021 Taliban takeover, two UN officials told Reuters.

Plagued by drought and deadly floods, Afghanistan has been unable to access UN climate funds due to political and procedural issues since the former insurgents came to power.

But with the population growing more desperate as climate woes stack up, UN agencies are hoping to unseal project financing for the fragile country to boost its resilience.

If successful, this would be the first time new international climate finance would flow into the arid, mountainous nation in three years.

“There are no climate skeptics in Afghanistan,” said Dick Trenchard, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) country director for Afghanistan. “You see the impact of climate change and its environmental effects everywhere you go.”

Two UN agencies are currently drawing together proposals they hope to submit next year to shore up nearly $19 million in financing from the UN’s Global Environment Facility (GEF), part of the financial mechanism of the 2015 UN Paris Agreement on climate change.

These include the FAO, which hopes to get support for a project costing $10 million that would improve rangeland, forest and watershed management across up to four provinces in Afghanistan, while avoiding giving money directly to Taliban authorities.

That’s according to diplomatic sources, who say that the world’s 20 major economies have reached a consensus — but a fragile one.

The UN Development Program, meanwhile, hopes to secure $8.9 million to improve the resilience of rural communities where livelihoods are threatened by increasingly erratic weather patterns, the agency told Reuters. If that goes ahead, it plans to seek another $20 million project.

“We’re in conversations with the GEF, the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund — all these major climate financing bodies — to reopen the pipeline and get resources into the country, again, bypassing the de facto authorities,” said Stephen Rodriques, UNDP resident representative for Afghanistan.

National governments often work alongside accredited agencies to implement projects that have received UN climate funds. But because the Taliban government is not recognized by UN member states, UN agencies would both make the request and serve as the on-the-ground partner to carry out the project.

A Taliban administration spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

FLOODS, DROUGHT

“If one of the countries most impacted by climate change in the world cannot have access to (international climate funds), it means something isn’t working,” Rodriques said, adding that any funds should come alongside continued dialogue on human and women’s rights.

Flash floods have killed hundreds in Afghanistan this year, and the heavily agriculture-dependent country suffered through one of the worst droughts in decades that ended last year. Many subsistence farmers, who make up much of the population, face deepening food insecurity in one of the world’s poorest countries.

The FAO and UNDP will need to receive initial approvals by the GEF secretariat before they can submit their full proposals for a final decision from the GEF Council, which comprises representatives from 32 member states.

If the agencies get that first green light, Trenchard said, they would aim to submit their proposals in early 2025.

We “are awaiting guidance as to whether it would be possible to proceed,” Trenchard said.

No foreign capital has formally recognized the Taliban government, and many of its members are subject to sanctions. The United States has frozen billions in central bank funds since the former insurgents took over and barred girls and women over the age of 12 from schools and universities.

Many human rights activists have condemned the Taliban’s policies and some have questioned whether interaction with the Taliban and funnelling funds into the country could undermine foreign governments’ calls for a reversal on women’s rights restrictions.

The Taliban says it respects women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law.

Countries mired in conflict and its aftermath say they have struggled to access private investment, as they are seen as too risky. That means UN funds are even more critical to their populations, many of whom have been displaced by war and weather.

Taliban members are attending the ongoing annual UN climate negotiations COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan as observers for the first time, Reuters has reported.

The Taliban’s presence could build trust between Afghanistan and international donors, said Abdulhadi Achakzai, founder of the Afghanistan climate nonprofit Environmental Protection Trainings and Development Organization, on the sidelines of COP29.

“It will be a safer world for the future to include Afghanistan officially in the agenda,” he said. “We see this is an opportunity. There are funds for Afghanistan, we just need to secure it.”


Vietnamese man sentenced to 44 years for plotting suicide attack at London’s Heathrow

Metropolitan Police officers stand guard in central London, on January 21, 2023. (AFP)
Metropolitan Police officers stand guard in central London, on January 21, 2023. (AFP)
Updated 05 February 2025
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Vietnamese man sentenced to 44 years for plotting suicide attack at London’s Heathrow

Metropolitan Police officers stand guard in central London, on January 21, 2023. (AFP)
  • He spent a year in Yemen, where he received “military-type” training and helped prepare the group’s magazine, Inspire, working directly with Samir Khan, a US citizen who served as its editor and died in a US drone strike in 2011, according to the departme

LONDON: A Vietnamese man was sentenced to 44 years in prison for attempting to carry out a suicide attack at Heathrow International Airport in London, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
Minh Quang Pham, 41, who was alleged to have traveled to Yemen to receive military training from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, had previously pleaded guilty charges that included providing material support to the group.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle R. Sassoon described his actions not only as an affront to the safety of the US “but to the principles of peace and security that we hold dear.”
“Today’s sentencing underscores our collective resolve to stop terrorism before it occurs, and place would-be terrorists in prison,” Sassoon said in a statement.
The Justice Department said Pham traveled from the United Kingdom to Yemen in December 2010 and took an oath of allegiance to the militant group, which the United States lists as a terrorist organization.
He spent a year in Yemen, where he received “military-type” training and helped prepare the group’s magazine, Inspire, working directly with Samir Khan, a US citizen who served as its editor and died in a US drone strike in 2011, according to the department.
Pham was arrested by British authorities in 2011 and extradited to the United States four years later to face terrorism charges, it added.

 

 


The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims and a philanthropist, dies at 88

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims and a philanthropist, dies at 88
Updated 05 February 2025
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The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims and a philanthropist, dies at 88

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims and a philanthropist, dies at 88
  • Over decades, the Aga Khan evolved into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly with ease

PARIS: The Aga Khan, who became the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims at age 20 as a Harvard undergraduate and poured a material empire built on billions of dollars in tithes into building homes, hospitals and schools in developing countries, died Tuesday. He was 88.
His Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili religious community announced that His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV and 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, died in Portugal surrounded by his family.
His successor was designated in his will, which will be read in the presence of his family and religious leaders in Lisbon before the name is made public. A date has not been announced. The successor is chosen from among his male progeny or other relatives, according to the Ismaili community’s website.
Considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was a student when his grandfather passed over his playboy father as his successor to lead the diaspora of Shia Ismaili Muslims, saying his followers should be led by a young man “who has been brought up in the midst of the new age.”
Over decades, the Aga Khan evolved into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly with ease.
While his death was announced late in the day in Europe and the Middle East, ceremonies were already being held Tuesday in Ismaili communities in the US Condolences poured in online from charity groups he supported, as well as the equestrian world, where he was a well-known figure.
“An extraordinarily compassionate global leader,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, calling him a very good friend. “He will be deeply, deeply missed by people around the world.”
Treated as a head of state, the Aga Khan was given the title of “His Highness” by Queen Elizabeth in July 1957, two weeks after his grandfather the Aga Khan III unexpectedly made him heir to the family’s 1,300-year dynasty as leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect.
He became the Aga Khan IV on Oct. 19, 1957, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the spot where his grandfather once had his weight equaled in diamonds in gifts from his followers.
He had left Harvard to be at his ailing grandfather’s side, and returned to school 18 months later with an entourage and a deep sense of responsibility.
“I was an undergraduate who knew what his work for the rest of his life was going to be,” he said in a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair magazine. “I don’t think anyone in my situation would have been prepared.”
A defender of Islamic culture and values, he was widely regarded as a builder of bridges between Muslim societies and the West despite — or perhaps because of — his reticence to become involved in politics.
The Aga Khan Development Network, his main philanthropic organization, deals mainly with issues of health care, housing, education and rural economic development. It says it works in over 30 countries and has an annual budget of about $1 billion for nonprofit development activities.
A network of hospitals bearing his name are scattered in places where health care had lacked for the poorest, including Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, where he spent tens of millions of dollars for development of local economies.
The extent of the Aga Khan’s financial empire is hard to measure. Some reports estimated his personal wealth to be in the billions.
The Ismailis — a sect originally centered in India but which expanded to large communities in east Africa, Central and South Asia and the Middle East — consider it a duty to tithe up to 12.5 percent of their income to him as steward.
“We have no notion of the accumulation of wealth being evil,” he told Vanity Fair in 2012. “The Islamic ethic is that if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a privileged individual in society, you have a moral responsibility to society.”
The Ismaili community’s website said he was born on Dec. 13, 1936, in Creux-de-Genthod, near Geneva, Switzerland, the son of Joan Yarde-Buller and Aly Khan, and spent part of his childhood in Nairobi, Kenya — where a hospital now bears his name.
He became well-known as a horse breeder and owner, and he represented Iran in the 1964 Winter Olympics as a skier. His eye for building and design led him to establish an architecture prize, and programs for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard. He restored ancient Islamic structures throughout the world.
The Aga Khan lived at length in France and had been based in Portugal for the past several years. His development network and foundation are based in Switzerland.
The Aga Khan will be buried in Lisbon. The date was not released.
He is survived by three sons and a daughter and several grandchildren.

 


UN chief looks forward to continuing ‘productive’ relationship with Trump

UN chief looks forward to continuing ‘productive’ relationship with Trump
Updated 05 February 2025
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UN chief looks forward to continuing ‘productive’ relationship with Trump

UN chief looks forward to continuing ‘productive’ relationship with Trump
  • “The Secretary-General looks forward to continuing his productive relationship with President Trump and the US government to strengthen that relationship in today’s turbulent world”

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has worked tirelessly to implement many reforms to increase efficiency and innovation, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump said the world body had to get its act together.
“From day one, US support for the United Nations has saved countless lives and advanced global security,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
“The Secretary-General looks forward to continuing his productive relationship with President Trump and the US government to strengthen that relationship in today’s turbulent world.”


All 67 bodies from Washington air disaster now recovered

All 67 bodies from Washington air disaster now recovered
Updated 05 February 2025
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All 67 bodies from Washington air disaster now recovered

All 67 bodies from Washington air disaster now recovered

WASHINGTON: Salvage crews have recovered the bodies of all 67 people killed when a passenger plane and a US Army helicopter collided near Washington and plunged into the Potomac River, officials said Tuesday.
All but one of the bodies have been identified, said a statement from a variety of government agencies involved in the recovery effort after the deadliest US air crash in 20 years.
The statement called the completion of the search for remains a “significant step” toward bringing closure to the families of the people who died in the accident last week.
“Our hearts are with the victims’ families as they navigate this tragic loss,” the statement said. “We extend our deepest condolences and remain committed to supporting them through this difficult time.”
Crews continue working to recover the wreckage of the passenger plane — a Bombardier CRJ-700 operated by American Eagle airlines — from the frigid waters of the Potomac.
So far crews have retrieved pieces including the right wing, a center section of the fuselage, part of the left wing, the tail cone and rudder, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
Work to recover the chopper will begin when the plane work is done, the city agencies said.
Sixty passengers on the plane and four crew members were killed in Wednesday’s accident along with three soldiers aboard the US Army Black Hawk helicopter.
There were no survivors.
The plane was on a flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington when the collision occurred.
President Donald Trump was quick to blame diversity hiring policies for the accident although no evidence has emerged that they were responsible.
Trump also said the helicopter, which was on a routine training mission, appeared to be flying too high.
According to US media reports, the control tower at the busy airport may have been understaffed at the time of the accident.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to compile a preliminary report within 30 days, although a full investigation could take a year.


Zelensky: Sanctions relief for Russia would increase the risk of a new invasion

Zelensky: Sanctions relief for Russia would increase the risk of a new invasion
Updated 05 February 2025
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Zelensky: Sanctions relief for Russia would increase the risk of a new invasion

Zelensky: Sanctions relief for Russia would increase the risk of a new invasion

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that offering Russia any respite from sanctions would increase the risk of a second invasion.
“If sanctions are lifted from the Russian Federation, I believe this will increase the risk of a second invasion,” he told British journalist Piers Morgan.